How do you find ADA Skid Resistant Tile for Accessible Bathrooms or Kitchens?

Universal/accessible design of the home from an occupational therapy and a construction perspective. This blog is part of a quest for cool, convenient, functional design that makes life safer, easier, and as maintenance-free as possible. It's about the lifestyle.

How do you find skid resistant tile? First what is skid resistant tile? Skid resistance is measured via a coefficient of friction scale.

Coefficient of Friction: Wet/Dry

The skid resistance scale is used to determine the degree of slippage on a tiled surface. While assessing different tile surfaces, wet and dry conditions along with the speed of the subject are monitored. Also, the required force to move that subject and the angle of the tiled place are considered too. The Ceramic Tile Institute identifies tile in the following three categories:

Slip Resistant: Coefficient of friction is 0.60 or greater (wet). Meets or exceeds general safety and health regulations, ADA and OSHA requirements.

Conditionally Slip Resistant: Coefficient of friction is 0.50 to 0.59 (wet). Meets or exceed general safety and health regulations and OSHA requirements.

Questionable: Coefficient of friction less than 0.50

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One important fact is that the more textured a tile is, the less slippery it is. And that�s why, polished or highly polished tiles are not recommended for high traffic areas or for residential sites with children and the elderly. Also, as a rule the greater the anti-slip finish on the tile, the harder it is to keep clean.

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Now that we know what we are looking for, how do we find it? When putting in to search for skid resistant tile the results are primarily:

High-end tile sites that require contact for information.

Plastic, institutional-like tile.

Skid resistant surfacing agents to put onto tile surfaces.

How do you find the tile with .6 skid resistance and above? It won’t come up with a general Google search.

Skid resistance isn’t something the tile industry really seems to think people are interested in but some tile suppliers are getting a clue. On most websites there was no clear way of finding friction coefficient tile ratings.

This is how I find tile friction coefficient ratings on websites. (Task analysis, Susan:-)

Go to website that sells tile.

Navigate to tile page of website.

Click on ‘ceramic tile’ or ‘tile’, basically you want to isolate your search usually there are many other items that muddy the tile water such as accessories/grout etc. you don’t want to deal with these.

Now that you are on the ceramic tile page there is often in the left hand column ways to narrow your search.

Easiest way to find skid resistant tile:

·On the left hand side of many web pages there are usually navigation tabs to assist in narrowing your search. Tabs such as: Price, Brand etc. Look at all the tabs and find the tab with ‘Skid resistant or COF Ratings.’ Not all tile sites find this an important enough feature to have its own tab.

·On stellar websites such as Home Depot http://www.homedepot.com/ you there is a tab down by the bottom of the options but still its there and it looks like this: